FC Cincinnati and Vancouver Whitecaps FC played to a 1-1 draw Saturday night at BC Place in the team’s first ever trip to their Western Conference opposition. The result snaps a six-match winning streak for the Orange and Blue and is the second consecutive 1-1 draw for the Whitecaps.
The Orange and Blue remain atop the Eastern Conference table with 40 points (12-1-4), eight points clear of Nashville SC while Vancouver remain sixth (5-5-7) in the west with 22 points.
The first half featured plenty of chances for both sides in what was a back-and-forth affair over the opening forty-five minutes of play. Vancouver’s Brian White, who leads the Whitecaps with six goals on the year, nearly opened the scoring for the hosts in the 11th minute.
A long, bouncing ball played in towards the Cincinnati penalty area found its way onto the foot of White, who delicately chipped up and over Roman Celentano, but the attempt was wide of the far post and out of bounds to end the attack.
Brandon Vazquez, in search of his fifth goal of the season, responded to the White chance less than a minute later with a wonderful individual effort. Matt Miazga connected with Vazquez out of the back as Vazquez controlled skillfully and navigated around and through three Whitecaps defenders before releasing a quick shot that was saved by Yohei Takaoka.
Dom Badji, who started his fourth game in the last five matches across all competitions, had the half’s best look in the 40th minute. The chance came as a result of Álvaro Barreal’s attacking charge into the Vancouver area, and an initial shot that was deflected and saved.
Takaoka’s save left the ball free near the penalty spot, where Badji was first to claim, and quickly fired a shot towards goal. Whitecaps defender and captain Ranko Veselinovic blocked the shot and cleared off the goal line to keep things knotted at 0-0 going into the break.
Luciano Acosta provided a moment of magic off the bench for the Orange and Blue in the 83rd minute, scoring his eighth goal of the campaign. Miazga assisted on the goal, picking out Acosta with another quality ball out of the defensive third.
Acosta was able to beat Veselinovic to Miazga’s ball and chipped Takaoka with his first touch from a difficult angle.
But Vancouver brought things level six minutes later in the 89th minute with a penalty conversion from Ryan Gauld. Sergio Cordova drew the foul after getting into a dangerous area and Gauld tucked it away for his third goal in as many matches to end it in a 1-1 draw.
FC Cincinnati return home to TQL Stadium on Wednesday, June 21 as the Orange and Blue take on Toronto FC. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET with tickets still available at FCCincinnati.com/Tickets or by calling (513) 977-5425 (KICK). The match will also stream exclusively on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app and fans can also listen to the match locally on ESPN 1530.
FC CINCINNATI GAME REPORT
FC Cincinnati at Vancouver Whitecaps
Date: June 10, 2023
Competition: MLS Regular Season
Venue: BC Place
Kickoff: 10:39 p.m. ET/7:39 p.m. PT
Weather: Indoors
SCORING SUMMARY: 1-2-F
VAN: 0-1-1
CIN: 0-1-1
VAN – Ryan Gauld (PK) 89’
CIN – Luciano Acosta (Matt Miazga) 83’
GAME NOTES
• FC Cincinnati picked up a draw in their first-ever road trip against the Whitecaps Saturday night at BC Place. The Orange and Blue have yet to defeat Vancouver holding a 0-1-2 record.
• The draw sees FC Cincinnati tally 40 points through 17 matches. In 2022, it took the Orange and Blue 30 matches, earned in September against San Jose, to reach the 40-point mark.
• FC Cincinnati are nine points away from matching their 2022 season points total of 49 with 17 matches to play.
• FC Cincinnati concluded interconference play for the season with their draw against Vancouver. The Orange and Blue finish the year 4-1-1 against Western Conference opposition.
• Matt Miazga is the first FC Cincinnati player, excluding goalkeepers, to eclipse 1500 minutes this season. Miazga has played ninety minutes in every MLS regular season match for the Orange and Blue this season.
• Luciano Acosta’s 83rd minute goal is his third in the last three league matches.
LINEUPS
VAN: Yohei Takaoka, Mathias Laborda, Ranko Veselinovic, Luis Martins, Javain Brown (Tristan Blackmon, 66’), Sebastian Berhalter, Andres Cubas (Ryan Gauld, 73’), Ryan Raposo (Julian Gressel, 66’), Pedro Vite, Sergio Cordova, Brian White
Substitutes not used: Isaac Boehmer, Deiber Caicedo, Karifa Yao, Jean-Claude Ngando, Russell Teibert
Head Coach: Vanni Sartini
CIN: Roman Celentano, Álvaro Barreal (Ray Gaddis, 90’+4), Ian Murphy (Santiago Arias, 68’), Matt Miazga, Yerson Mosquera, Alvas Powell, Junior Moreno, Obinna Nwobodo, Yuya Kubo (Malik Pinto, 78’), Dominique Badji (Luciano Acosta, 68’), Brandon Vazquez
Substitutes not used: Alec Kann, Evan Louro, Marco Angulo, Arquimides Ordoñez
Head Coach: Pat Noonan
STATS SUMMARY: VAN/CIN
Shots: 11 / 10
Shots on Goal: 3 / 3
Saves: 2 / 2
Corner Kicks: 5 / 2
Fouls: 16 / 13
Offside: 1 / 2
Possession: 53.3 / 46.7
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
CIN – Ian Murphy (Yellow card) 29’
VAN – Ryan Raposo (Yellow card) 60’
CIN – Yerson Mosquera (Yellow card) 77’
VAN – Pedro Vite (Yellow card) 90’+2
OFFICIALS
Referee: Ismir Pekmic
Ast. Referees: Jeremy Hanson, Eduardo Jeff
Fourth Official: Alain Ruch
